Amended in Assembly April 30, 2015

Amended in Assembly March 26, 2015

California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 252

Introduced by Assembly Member Holden

February 9, 2015

An act to add and repeal Section 52245 of the Education Code, relating to pupil instruction.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 252, as amended, Holden. Advanced placement program: grant program: STEM curriculum.

Existing law contains legislative findings and declarations stating that advanced placement courses, among other things, help to improve the overall curriculum at schools where they are provided and provide a cost-effective means for high school pupils to obtain college-level coursework experience. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to annually update the information on advanced placement available on the Internet Web site of the State Department of Education to include current information on the various means available to school districts to offer or access advanced placement courses, and to annually communicate with high schools that offer advanced placement courses in fewer than 5 subjects and inform them of the various options for making advanced placement courses and other rigorous courses available to pupils who may benefit from them.

This bill, until July 1, 2021, would establish a grant program overseen by the department for purposes of awarding grants to cover the costs associated with a high school establishing or expanding its advanced placement STEM curriculum, as defined. The bill would require the Superintendent to submit begin delete no later than end delete begin insert on or before end insert July 1, 2021, a specified report to the Legislature describing the effectiveness of the grant program.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:

(1) According to a 2009 report “Technical Difficulties: Meeting
California’s Workforce Needs in Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Math (STEM) Fields,” there is a large disparity
between the continued workforce demands for degrees in the STEM
fields and a continued shortfall of STEM degrees conferred to
California’s minority population.

(2) Fifty-nine percent of California’s African American pupils
who have potential to thrive in an advanced placement STEM
course do not take the advanced placement STEM course for which
they have potential.

(3) Fifty-eight percent of California’s American Indian and
Alaska Native pupils do not take the advanced placement STEM
course for which they have potential.

(4) Fifty-five percent of California’s Hispanic or Latino pupils
do not take the advanced placement STEM course for which they
have potential.

(5) Forty-one percent of California’s female pupils do not take
the advanced placement STEM course for which they have
potential.

(6) More than ninety percent of colleges and universities across
the country offer college credit, advanced placement, or both, for
qualifying advanced placement examination scores. These credits
can potentially save pupils and their families thousands of dollars
in college tuition, fees, and textbook costs.

(7) Research shows that pupils who take advanced placement
courses are much more likely than their peers to complete a college
degree on time. Pupils have the opportunity to dig deeper into
subjects that interest them, develop advanced research and
communication skills, and learn to tap their creative,
problem-solving, and analytical potential.

(8) Advanced placement courses give pupils access to rigorous
college-level work. Advanced placement pupils build confidence
and learn the essential time management and study skills needed
for college and career success.

(b) It is the intent of the Legislature to establish an advanced
placement STEM Access Grant Program to expand diversity in
the STEM field in regards to socioeconomic standing, gender, and
race.

SEC. 2.  

Section 52245 is added to the Education Code, to read:

52245.  

(a)  For purposes of this section, “STEM curriculum”
means courses in any of the following subject areas:

(1) Biology.

(2) Calculus.

(3) Chemistry.

(4) Computer science.

(5) Environmental science.

(6) Physics.

(7) Statistics.

(b)  There is hereby established a grant program for the purpose
of awarding moneys to cover the costs associated with a high
school establishing or expanding its advanced placement STEM
curriculum. Grants shall be administered in accordance with both
of the following:

(1) Grant funds may be used for begin delete professional development to
enable instructors to teach an advanced placement course in the
STEM curriculum proposed to be established by the high school. end delete
begin insert one-time costs of establishing or expanding advanced placement
STEM courses, including, but not limited to, teacher recruitment,
professional development, instructional materials, laboratory
materials and supplies, and facilities remodeling. end insert

(2) The grant amount shall be determined based on the cost of
the type of advanced placement course in the STEM curriculum,
not to exceed eight thousand dollars ($8,000) per grant begin delete application,
excluding professional development costs. end delete begin insert application. end insert

(c) A begin delete high end delete school begin insert district end insert may apply to the department for begin delete grant
funding end delete begin insert a maximum of one grant per high school and ten grants
per school district end insert begin delete end delete pursuant to this section if all of the following
conditions are met:

(1) The high school meets either of the following criteria:

(A) Does not offer advanced placement courses in the STEM
curriculum.

(B) Offers advanced placement courses in the STEM curriculum,
but those courses are oversubscribed. “Oversubscribed” means
demand for the course exceeds begin delete space end delete begin insert enrollment end insert by at least one-half
of the number of pupils required for a full class.

(2) The high school has identified pupils begin insert from populations that
are underrepresented in STEM courses end insert who have demonstrated
they have high potential to be successful in one or more advanced
placement courses in the STEM curriculum. The high school may
identify pupils using any means it deems appropriate, including,
but not limited to, a pupil’s score on the preliminary SAT.

begin insert

(d) Grant applications shall be submitted on a form developed
by the Superintendent and shall include, but not necessarily be
limited to, an itemized budget for the establishment or expansion
of the advanced placement STEM course and an agreement to
provide the Superintendent with the data needed for the report
required pursuant to subdivision (f).

end insert begin delete

(d)

end delete

begin insert (e) end insert  In awarding grants, the department shall give first priority
to applicants with no advanced placement courses in the STEM
curriculum.

begin delete

(e)

end delete

begin insert (f) end insert  (1)  begin delete No later than end delete begin insert On or before end insert July 1, 2021, the
Superintendent shall submit a report to the Legislature describing
the effectiveness of the grant program established pursuant to this
section. The Superintendent is encouraged to consult with the
College Board in preparing the report pursuant to this subdivision.
The report shall include begin delete both of the following: end delete

begin delete (A) end delete begin delete   end delete begin delete The end delete begin insert the end insert increase in the number of pupils begin delete who have access
to end delete begin insert in total, and the number of pupils by gender and pupil subgroup,
as defined in Section 52052, enrolled in end insert advanced placement
courses in the STEM curriculum.

begin delete

(B) The increase in the number of pupils in the advanced
placement courses in the STEM curriculum that include core
demographics, including, but not limited to, gender and race.

end delete

(2) A report submitted pursuant to this subdivision shall be
submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government
Code.

begin delete

(f)

end delete

begin insert (g) end insert  The department shall implement this section only to the
extent that moneys are available to the department and the
Superintendent for the purposes of this section. The moneys may
be derived from any source, including, but not limited to, state
funding, federal funding, and nonstate funding sources.

begin delete

(g)

end delete

begin insert (h) end insert  This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2021, and,
as of January 1, 2022, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute,
that becomes operative on or before January 1, 2022, deletes or
extends the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.